Joseph Jeremiah Benson (Earth-199999)
History Early Life Joseph Jeremiah Benson was on April 13, 1987, to Ian & Kimberly Benson, a Mormon couple in Salt Lake City, Utah. During his childhood, Joseph's father left him & his mother due to a nervous breakdown. As a result, his mother suffered from depression, which led her to become inactive from the Mormon Church. Without having any viable sources of light & truth, Joseph would later develop a rebellious attitude in life. When Joseph was in middle school, he assaulted a teacher in an attempt to resist discipline; the teacher fell into a coma, & she was soon taken to the hospital, where she almost died. Because of the seriousness of the transgression, Joseph was expelled & confined to boot camp. While in boot camp, he was placed under a military official, Sgt. Lehi Stewart. Also a member of the Mormon Church, it was Sgt. Stewart who helped Joseph rekindle his faith & change his life for the better. Years after spending months in boot camp, Joseph helped his mother become active again in the Church. US Navy & SHIELD After finishing school, Joseph joined the US Navy. During his service, he was promoted to Captain, & he often went under the nickname "Captain JJ". During his early service in the Navy, Captain JJ was given an opportunity to work for the secret agency SHIELD. He was enrolled in the Academy, where he was placed into the Operations Division. Thanks to his faith & high morale, even in the toughest of times, Captain JJ eventually became one of the popular students at the Academy. During his days at the Acamdey, Captain JJ befriended Leo Fitz & Jemma Simmons, who were both then in the Science & Technology Division. It was at the Academy that Captain JJ learned about the terrorist organization Hydra. Thanks to his wisdom about secret combinations he learned at Church, Captain JJ knew not to trust Hydra & its intentions. When news regarding the tragic death of Agent Phillip Coulson in the hands of the trickster god Loki, Captain JJ was sort of skeptical of the idea of "other gods". After graduating from the Academy, Captain JJ officially became a SHIELD Agent & was assigned to the Iliad. During his days as an Agent of SHIELD, Captain JJ relied upon his faith to help his fellow agents on missions. Of course, it was also during that time that Agent Benson learned about Hydra hiding within SHIELD. One time, Agent Benson was given an offer to join Hydra, but being dedicated upon his faith, he rejected the offer, thus earning him the nickname "Abdiel", after the angel in Paradise Lost. As a result, Agent Benson had become aware of who were Hydra agents & who were loyal to SHIELD; this caused him to secretly start gathering information &, in the process, creating a database with hopes of exposing Hydra. On the day SHIELD fell, Agent Benson led a small rebellion army against some Hydra agents. When the battle got too intense, Agent Benson was forced to evacuate the battleship via emergency raft while his fellow agents willingly sacrificed their lives. Moments after escaping, Agent Benson ended up stranded on an island, & he was relieved when he found that his copy of the Book of Mormon was among the possessions he brought that were miraculously preserved. After being rescued, he resumed his duties in the Navy up until retirement. After doing so, Captain JJ returned to Salt Lake City, where he got a job at the Church History Library near Temple Square. The Called While working in the Church History Library, Captain JJ learned, from the weekly newspaper, about the 50-State Initiative issued by Tony Stark. On that same day, a bomb went off in the Library, injuring many of the employees. Soon after the tragic incident, Captain JJ was greeted by government official Reuben Scott, who explained that the bombing was a prank conspired by the cult Akuman. This same Reuben Scott, along with agent Everett Ross, explained to Captain JJ that he has been chosen to bring together & lead a team of superheroes to represent the State of Utah. Captain JJ accepted the offer, & was immediately given the task of finding worthy individuals. One rainy day, Captain JJ collided with a missionary who was seemingly running away. Pretty soon, he came across where an alleged tragic accident occurred, in which another missionary was brutally injured in a hit-&-run & was being loaded into an ambulance. The next day, Captain JJ met with Mission President, Gerald Tatum, to return the nametag of the missionary he ran into on that rainy day. It was at that moment that Captain JJ learned about the missionary, Elder Elijah Griffith, & about his reputation as a superhero back home in Wyoming, & how it would be a painful choice to send him home for failing to keep his companion safe from danger. Captain JJ made a deal with President Tatum that he would help him become a better hero than he was back home. Captain JJ later met with Elder Griffith & offered him the opportunity, explaining that he could choose to either return home & not bother showing his face ever again or to join the Called & become a better hero than before. Elder Griffith accepted this offer, & thus he became the first to join the Called. After Elder Griffith's registration, Captain JJ went on to find & recruit more members to join the Called, greeting them in various moments: quantum physics expert Wesley Mitchells, who had just taken down an active shooter in a shop in City Creek; athlete Joshua Sancho, who stopped a purse-snatcher on the streets; & crime-fighter Aaliyah Brooks, who had just been dealing with an aggressive panhandler who was harassing a couple of Sister Missionaries. Personality Being a former Navy Officer, Captain JJ is capable of getting a job done. Of course, he tends to be a bit stubborn towards his team--especially Elder Griffith, as he tends to be a bit strict towards him whenever he slips up. Despite this, he cares about Elder Griffith & the others. Powers & Abilities Powers Captain JJ has no superhuman powers. Abilities * Multilingual: Benson is capable of speaking various languages. This was first shown as he greeted a couple of Temple Square Sister Missionaries, each in their native languages. * Expert Hand-to-Hand Combat: Thanks to military experience, Benson has shown himself to be a very skilled fighter, having top combat scores. * Expert Marksman: Benson has extensive training with a variety of small arms, & is an accurate shooter with most of them. Paraphernalia Equipment Weapons Category:Earth-199999 Category:Mormon Characters Category:50-State Initiative members Category:SHIELD Agent Category:United States Army members Category:Called (Earth-199999) Category:Adventurers Category:Learned Intelligence Category:Normal Strength Category:Normal Speed Category:Normal Durability Category:No Energy Projection Category:Fighting Ability - Master of several forms of combat Category:No Dual Identity Category:Black Hair Category:Original Characters